VICTORY TO THE PEOPLE
40 | July• 2019
support nuclear power because of
its environmental impacts, such as
the devastation caused by uranium
mining.
One day in 2014 Makoma received
an email from a contact in an anti-
nuclear environmental organisa-
tion in Russia. Did ELA know about
a recent enormous deal for nuclear
power that had been inked between
Russia and South Africa? It was set
to expand South Africa’s one nucle-
ar power station to up to ten nuclear
power plants across the country.
The email linked Makoma to the
site of Rosatom, a leading developer
of nuclear technolog y that is owned
by the Russian state. There, in Rus-
sian, was a copy of the Intergovern-
mental Agreement that had sealed
a pact between the two countries.
None of it had been made public in
South Africa.
“It was horrifying,” says Makoma.
“This deal was not only illegal, it
was also basically going to bankrupt
the country.”
Makoma guessed that the docu-
ment had been posted in error and
would be removed soon. ELA madeA
light, misty rain was falling on the
streets of Cape Town, South Africa,
as environmental activists Makoma
Lekalakala and Liz McDaid emerged
from the Western Cape High Court.
They came onto the courthouse stepsto the cheers of their waiting supporters.
“Victory to the people!” declared
a triumphant Liz, 55, as Makoma,
52, stood by her side. “As a result of
the court case, the people of South
Africa have to be consulted.”
It was April 26, 2017. The two
women had just led a coalition
of grassroots organisations from
across South Africa in a lengthy Da-
vid-and-Goliath legal battle. They
had taken the highest powers in the
land to court to overturn a secret nu-
clear power deal costing $76 billion
that the government had made with
Russia. They had argued that the
government could not make energ y
deals without public consultation
and democratic debate.
And they had won.
The unlikely story of two middle-
aged single mums began three years
earlier. Makoma Lekalakala grew
up in Soweto and was very active in
the anti-apartheid movement. Her
activism moved to trade union work,
then women’s rights and then envi-
ronmental justice. She was now the
director of Earth Life Africa (ELA),
a non-profit environmental organi-
sation in Johannesburg. ELA doesn’t